6870 now or wait for 7850

deepbFeb 2, 2012, 12:34 PM

Hi guys,

I'm looking at upgrading from my old 9800GT. I have a 750W Corsair PSU . I see that a 6870 is around the 175-180$ mark right now and had pretty much decided to go with either a sapphire or xfx version. Now that I see the 7850 might be releasing soon in at the 200$ region soon, I'm confused whether I should wait for it. Another thing to consider is I'm using a Gigabyte Sumo Case which restricts me on using the 11 inch + length cards. Any advice would be appreciated.

I'd say it's up to you. But for me, I will buy now. Mostly because I can't wait. Anyway it's up to YOU.

Also, I think the prices of 7850 will maybe expensive at the first, but goes down in time. Like the 7900, which is expensive now and can go down whenever they want to, especially when kepler are launched. In this way they get more money for sales, because of demand.

och! 9800GT I can see the necessity for an upgrade all jokes aside 6870 can be had today for $160 so I would be happy with a 6870 at that price its a great deal of power. 7850 if at $200 will be worth the wait however that's up to your own discretion really and i would not want to personally game on a 9800GT in this day and age. I would just get a 6870 today because you are guarantee it is a great value and performance/dollar ration even when 78xx hits the market.

I've seen 6870's go for as low as $155 + free shipping as of late. The 7850 will probably be a good bit over the $200 mark when launched (and will beat 6870) so it's up to you. The 6870 is an awesome performer for the price and would be a good upgrade over a 9800 gt. Plus, you can always resell the 6870 easily later and go for something more powerful like a 7950 (1.5 gb version is what I'm thinking about) when you feel the need to. Good luck

you mentioned Crossfire and I wish to warn you that stuttering and FPS dips are common with Crossfire or SLI. A huge article investigated this here at Tomshardware with various card configurations.

Again, I advise something like the GTX560Ti, and wait another year or two and build a new system or just get a better card (depending on your current system).

The GTX560Ti runs many games at full quality. When SKYRIM gets a little better coding it will run just fine with this card. I have an HD5870 which is almost as good as the GTX560Ti and I've tried just about every game and feel no pressing need to upgrade.

I have a couple games that I bought on sale that really stress my card so I'm waiting to play with a new GTX6xx series:- Witcher 2- Assassin's Creed Brotherhood- Metro 2033

*I'm looking at my games list in Steam, and about 80% of my 100 games run at FULL or near FULL quality at 1920x1080 @ 4xAA 60Hz VSYNC with my HD5870.

**PHYSX WARNING**Unless you can run a game at full 60FPS (sometimes 30FPS), I see no point in even using PhysX. PhysX will drop your frame rate, so you'll need to lower your game quality or else just play at a lower frame rate. However, if you don't synch (i.e. 60FPS VSYNC enabled) you get screen tearing which is annoying.

What's the point in adding a little bit of eye candy if you have to sacrifice too much to get that?

I plan on using PhysX with my GTX6xx card, but ONLY when my FPS is as high as it goes with PhysX enabled. Don't forget that you can easily benchmark a game, such as Batman Arkham City and get 60FPS but drop below 20FPS at times. I won't likely use PhysX even when I get my new GTX6xx card because I just don't like stuttering.

At this point 6870s have the best fps per dollar rate so you can go ahead and get it. The 7850 won't be cheap so I'd suggest to either keep your 9800 for now and get 7850 day one, or get 6870 now and wait for nvidia's Kepler as these cards will make the prices of 7000 series go down significantly, o you could go for 600 series.

Or even better, get a used 6850/6870/6950 now cheap from people who are rushing to upgrade to 7000 cards.

AFAIK the best Nvidia performers card (speaking about lower temperatures and noise) is the reference design ones when they go SLI.Considering this, if you want to go SLI in the future I would recommend the reference design (with external exaust and centrifugal fans)

I'd personally pick Sapphire over XFX. I used to have each of their cheapest models of 6850 and the XFX ran hotter AND louder than the Sapphire. The XFX also had an annoying 40% default idle fan speed (vs 23% for the Sapphire). Nothing software like MSI Afterburner can't fix but still, my vote obviously goes for Sapphire. It all comes down to personnal preference so someone else might say XFX. I never had a graphic card fail on me so I can't really recommend on bad experiences with either brand.

I think the 6870 and 560ti is too close in performance for such a huge price difference. I've decided to go with the Sapphire 6870 for now. Maybe sell it down the line and pick up a Kepler series card down the line or 7000 series 6 months down the line. Thanks for all the advice guys.